The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Delayed sequels are almost never a good idea. Usually audiences have forgotten about the original movie after a number of years, or at least their enthusiasm has waned. Likewise, the original team of players, including the directors, writers, and actors may want nothing to do with the new movie which makes the original magic hard to recreate. In fact, everything tends to work better if you try to create a brand new identity a la the Fast & Furious franchise. But sometimes everything goes wrong in blatant cash grab like today's sequel, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Years removed from their latest Mummy related adventure, Rick and Evelyn O'Connell are toiling from boredom in retirement, while their son Alex has uncovered titular tomb of the Dragon Emperor, a former warlord said to have mastery over the elements in resurrection. And when someone intent on saving post WWII China does precisely that, the O'Connell's and their new allies will have to band together to stop a worldwide invasion.

On its face this is the kind of thing that should work. You grab two old school Hong Kong stars for the baddie and new ally, Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh respectively, bring in more of the gonzo action-adventure elements and have the O'Connells save the day. Sadly it just doesn't work and here are the big reasons why.

Way Too Much CGI

I get that you have to use CGI for this movie. The new bad guy has a bunch of powers that are hard to present without using modern effects. But there are so many scenes in this movie that throw in a CGI monster or character for no real reason. This would almost be forgivable if the set pieces were well constructed and the effects were amazing, but sadly they are not. Thus the entire movie feels very fake and immersion proof.

More Melodrama Than Fun

The first two Mummy movies were romps. Light-hearted movies, despite all the of the death and destruction, that were clearly meant to entertain and only brought out drama when the plot needed it. In other words they picked their moments. This time around everyone has an issue and is a broody mess. There's a ton of dramatic death or near-death scenes, Brendan Fraser's Rick doesn't seem to want anything to do with the events of the film, and no one is cracking jokes. Well there's one they keep using.

Can Everyone Stop Saying Mummy

I'm normally not one to nitpick individual writer quirks, but this movie features the word "mummy" at least fifty times. And considering that the bad guy barely counts as a Mummy, since you know the mind associates mummies with ancient Egypt, it only highlights the discrepancy when they say it over and over again. It's also weird to call back to a movie from 2001 over and over again like it's a sacred canon. It also reminds us of who isn't here...

Rachel Weisz Missing Hurts the Film

Maria Bello gives it her all in this movie, but if you're a fan of the first two movies it's gonna be almost impossible to accept her as Evelyn. Weisz brought a quiet sincerity and sensitivity to her role, as she does with most of her work, and the new edition played by Bello is oddly adventure hungry and action-oriented. This was a character that was a capable fighter but was primarily driven by knowledge but now half of the reason the O'Connells get involved seems to be an apparent addiction to danger. This could work if it was a new character, but that's not who Evie was.